After two weeks on the road, the Big Red returned home to the friendly
confines of Lynah Rink... only to find the confines not so friendly, as they
picked up only one point against a pair of teams in the lower echelon of the
ECAC. Cornell looked pretty lethargic in both games and desperately needs
to work on the defensive end of their game, as the Big Red went for long
stretches on both nights without being able to get the puck across their own
blue line. Boxes have already been posted (bleah) ... more notes below:
Yale 2, Cornell 2 (OT)
I was on my way back from a conference and managed to miss a good portion of
this game, but let's see what we can come up with...
It was the Jason Elliott Show once again for the Big Red, as the freshman
netminder had another outstanding game, stopping 39 of 41 shots. Unfortu-
nately, it was not enough for the outright win, as Cornell lost a 2-0 lead,
blew a number of good scoring opportunities, and had to settle for the tie.
The recently-constructed line of Mike Sancimino, Geoff Lopatka, and Andre
Doll had a pretty solid night, accounting for both of the Cornell goals.
Things got off to a great start for the Big Red, as they lit the lamp 1:55
into the opening period. Lopatka pounced on a loose puck and centered it
for Doll, who blew it past Yale goalie Todd Sullivan. The Elis responded by
peppering Elliott for most of the rest of the period, but the freshman
turned aside all eleven shots. Meanwhile, Cornell showed a sign of things
to come, as they broke out of their own zone a few times in the first, only
to end up with a shot wide of the net. Lopatka finally stretched the
Cornell lead to 2-0 at 4:10 of the second period, as he knocked home a Doll
rebound.
The Elis finally found the range with 5:01 left in the middle period,
converting on their fourth power play of the game. On a nice tic-tac-toe
play in front of the net, John Cipolla took a feed near the crease and
wristed one that Zoran Kozic got his stick on, deflecting the puck over
Elliott. Yale came very close to tying the game a couple minutes later, as
Cipolla and Andy Weidenbach came into the zone on a 2-on-1, but Elliott
flicked out his glove and picked off Cipolla's high shot.
Freshman defenseman Ray Giroux tied the score at 4:12 of a wide-open third
period with his first goal in a Yale uniform, getting his stick on a John
Emmons rebound and flipping the puck over Elliott's glove. Both teams had
numerous opportunities to light the lamp again (particularly the Big Red),
but Elliott and Sullivan were walls the rest of the way.
Sullivan made 28 saves and had a pretty good night (including stops of
Lopatka twice on clean breakaways), but he did have his shaky moments and
frankly got lucky a few times. There were at least three shots that he
never saw but that went off the inside of his pad and drifted wide. The Big
Red also caught him out of the net twice, and fired wide both times. Oh,
what might have been...
Princeton 6, Cornell 3
Two Cornell highlights deserve special mention. The Hockey Shootout (one of
those promotional things where contestants try to shoot the puck from center
ice through little holes in a board across one of the goals) saw both con-
testants win prizes, the first time I've ever seen that happen at Lynah.
Also, the student section came up with a new cheer which I suspect has been
done elsewhere, but this is the first time I've heard it at a Cornell game.
It consists of taking the opposing goalie's first name and... well, consider
the following rendition for Princeton's James Konte after the Big Red got
their second goal:
"Gimme a J!" "J!"
"Gimme an A!" "A!"
"Gimme an M!" "M!"
"Gimme an E!" "E!"
"Gimme an S!" "S!"
"What does it spell?" "SIEVE!"
One look at the final score will tell you that these were pretty much the
ONLY highlights of this game for Cornell, as the Tigers outskated, out-
hustled, outplayed, and out-everything-elsed the Big Red. Goaltender Jason
Elliott, who had done a great job of carrying his team up to this point, had
his first bad game for the Big Red (actually, it was just a bad period), and
none of his teammates were able to pick up the slack. The win gave the
Tigers their first ECAC road sweep in almost three years.
The Tigers' Cornell connection (explanation in a bit) got things rolling at
3:25 of the first period. Casson Masters carried the puck across the blue
line and found Matt Brush, who skated behind the Cornell net and surprised
Elliott with a quick wrap-around. Brush's father Craig played for Cornell
in the early '70s (I think his mother might have attended Cornell as well),
while Masters was recruited by Cornell and nearly signed with the Big Red
last year before opting for another season in the juniors. It is NOT
wonderful to see them both doing so well.
Though Princeton held the 1-0 lead, and the Big Red was having a lot of
trouble getting out of their own end, things didn't look all that bad. In
fact, Geoff Lopatka came very close to tying the game at the 12:45 mark on a
short-handed breakaway. However, his shot glanced off the inside of Konte's
skate, and a short time later, Princeton exploded for three goals in less
than three minutes to effectively put the game away. At 13:32 of the first,
Tony Ranaldi cut in front of the Cornell net, taking a pass from J.P.
O'Connor and bouncing a shot off the right post and in.
Defensively, the Big Red had a dismal night. One of the hallmarks of the
Cornell defense in recent years has been their tendency to back off and give
ground, rather than challenging their opponents when they come across the
blue line. I've grown to hate this style, and Princeton's third goal is a
clear example of why. Masters carried the puck across the blue line on a
3-on-2, where he found defenseman Christian Felli retreating toward the net
(actually, toward the left boards). Masters simply fired toward the net,
where Elliott got his pad on the shot, but a wide-open Keith O'Brien was
there to pop the rebound into the empty net at 14:36 of the first. Cornell
used its timeout immediately, but it didn't staunch the bleeding, as the
Tigers notched another one at the 16:15 mark. Gavin Colquhoun slapped one
from the left side that went through a pileup in front of the net, possibly
deflecting off a Big Red player's skate, and floated across the goal line.
Princeton looked unstoppable, but the Big Red was finally able to light the
lamp thirty-six seconds later. On a power play, Steve Wilson got the puck
at the right point, drifted in, faked a pass, and suddenly rocketed one past
Konte on the stick side. When P.C. Drouin took a Brad Chartrand feed in
front of the Tiger net and flipped the puck over Konte's shoulder 22 seconds
into the second period, it looked like Cornell had fought their way back
into this one.
But the Big Red were hit with three consecutive momentum-killing penalties,
giving Princeton two minutes of 5-on-3 power-play time. The third penalty
in this string, a delay of game call on Steve Wilson for throwing the puck
out of the defensive zone, was a correct call but should never have
happened. Seven or eight seconds before, the puck had been flipped into the
air and had hit the netting behind the glass. Obviously, play should have
been stopped for a faceoff, but there was either an extremely slow whistle
or no whistle at all, because play continued until the penalty call. At any
rate, Cornell was faced with the dubious task of having to kill off a two-
minute 5-on-3 with three of their defensemen in the box. Surprisingly, they
almost did it, but the Tigers got their fifth goal with two seconds of
5-on-3 time remaining. Cornell attempted to clear away a rebound, but Ian
Sharp got to the loose puck, skated to the slot, and slapped it through
Elliott's pads at the 6:25 mark.
The game took a turn toward the farcical midway through the second period,
after Drouin took off on an end-to-end short-handed rush and rolled the puck
toward the Princeton net. Despite the fact that the goal light never came
on, most of the fans at that end of the rink apparently felt that Drouin had
scored, and they booed referee John Gallagher when the "goal" was not
called. This is most likely what prompted Gallagher to skate over and give
a message to penalty box official Peter Grossman, who then relayed it to PA
announcer Arthur "Lucky Program Giveaway" Mintz. Both men were shaking
their heads in disbelief, and Arthur's announcement made it clear why:
"There is no goal because the puck did not go into the net."
Um, thanks, ref. While the NC$$ rule book states (or at least suggests)
that there should be an announcement when the puck DOES go into the net and
the apparent goal is disallowed, there is no such provision for when the
puck DOESN'T go into the net. And why should there be, when that's what
happens 85-90% of the time? (I think it's called a save! Or a wide shot!)
I can understand Gallagher's being upset at getting booed by a partisan
crowd after he makes the correct call (or non-call in this case), but to
have that announcement made was Just Plain Silly.
Well, anyway, Mike Bois put the Tigers up 6-2 at 8:10 of the third period,
getting his stick on a Brent Flahr drive and deflecting the puck over
Elliott's shoulder. There was still hope, of course, especially since the
Tigers had led Colgate the night before by an identical score and had almost
blown it. But Cornell could not generate much in the way of offensive
pressure, as they were still having plenty of trouble in their own end. The
Big Red did get a goal with 1:49 left, when Lopatka stuffed home Mike Sanci-
mino's rebound, but any hopes they had of a miracle comeback officially died
when Tony Bergin was sent off for elbowing eight seconds later.
Konte had a steady game between the pipes, stopping 18 of 21 shots. As for
Elliott, he recovered from a rough first period, finishing with 23 saves.
One other note on Princeton's Masters: this guy is incredible. The box
score shows him with two assists, but when he was on the ice, he was just
about always leading a Princeton rush and was all over the place. If the
Tigers ever figure out how to use him, they are going to be DANGEROUS. A
serious Rookie of the Year candidate, and he'll probably develop into
Princeton's best forward since Andre Faust.
Cornell now has some much-needed time off, as their next action doesn't come
until December 29th at the Great Lakes Invitational. Hopefully, the Big Red
will be able to set things right in the interim, as they're not going to get
much help from the schedule. They'll face nationally-ranked competition in
Michigan State and Michigan or Michigan Tech at the GLI, then come back east
for a tough road trip to Union and RPI the following weekend.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and '94.5 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!! DJF 5/27/94
"You know that organ donor form on the back of your driver's license?... I'm
leaving my eyes, but I don't think anyone will thank me. I mean, they're
getting the eyes that didn't see the other car in the first place."
-- Elayne Boosler
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